President Donald Trump on Friday removed a racist video he posted to social media late Thursday night that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but said he won’t apologize for posting it.
The roughly minute-long video focused on false election fraud claims about the 2020 presidential election, but at the end it suddenly flashed to a clip of the Obamas’ faces superimposed on the heads of cartoon apes as the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens played in the background.
Speaking to reporters Friday night, Trump said “of course” he condemns the racist parts of the video, while noting he has no plans to apologize.
“No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he said on Air Force One, adding that he didn't see the full video. “I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
While the White House initially defended the video, it was met with swift backlash — including from Republicans, who said it was “unacceptable” and “racist” and asked Trump to take it down and apologize. It was removed shortly before noon on Friday.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official told NBC News.
Trump did not directly respond Friday night when asked which staffer sent it and if he was going to fire that person.
"I looked in the first part and it was really about voter fraud in, and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is," Trump said. "Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they'd look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted," Trump said.
"We took it down as soon as we found out about it," he added.
The video's imagery, which evokes long-standing racist tropes against Black people, comes during Black History Month, which honors the accomplishments and contributions of Black Americans. Barack Obama made U.S. history as the first Black president.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to NBC News’ request for comment Friday morning with a statement: “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King.’ Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Leavitt referred NBC News to a video posted initially by an X user in October that shows the Obamas as apes in the beginning and other Democrats’ faces as the heads of other African animals as the song continues to play. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is depicted as a warthog and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as an elephant, for example, while Trump is presented as a lion.
Representatives for the Obamas didn’t immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Trump’s repost drew strong criticism on social media from both sides of the aisle, including from several GOP lawmakers who rarely criticize the president publicly. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the upper chamber, sharply denounced the president on X, writing, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Trump said Friday night that he spoke with Scott, but provided few details about their conversation.
“He was great,” Trump said. “Tim is a great guy. He understood that 100%.”
Trump did not apologize to Scott, but explained what happened, according to a White House ally with direct knowledge of the matter. The person said that Scott called Trump, and that the senator expanded on his denunciation on X.
Scott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., wrote earlier Friday, “Even if this was a ‘Lion King’ meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who faces a competitive re-election race, also criticized Trump. “The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered,” he wrote on X.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump’s post “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent” in a post on X, adding, “This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Trump “a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder” and questioned why GOP leaders were “continuing to stand by this sick individual.”
Even after the post was removed, several GOP lawmakers continued to weigh in and call for an apology. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, called the images “offensive, heart breaking, and unacceptable,” while Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said the post was “a grave failure of judgment and is absolutely unacceptable from anyone — most especially from the President of the United States.”
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, meanwhile, noted the time it took to remove the “blatantly racist and inexcusable” post. “It should never have been posted or left published for so long,” he wrote on X.
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Friday night pressed Leavitt on why Trump wasn’t apologizing, pointing out that it wasn’t just Democrats who were criticizing the president.
Leavitt reiterated that Trump took down the post, and characterized the affair as "merely a distraction for the fake news media."
In addition to the post itself, there is anger and frustration about Leavitt’s initial response to the post, according to the White House ally with direct knowledge of the matter.
The person said Leavitt “dropped the ball,” noting her defense of the video comes during Black History month. They say she had either released a statement without fully grasping the situation or initially didn’t find it problematic.
The fallout extended well beyond Washington.
Mark Burns, a South Carolina pastor and longtime Trump supporter, said on X that he spoke with the president about the post.
“The President made it clear to me that this post was made by a staffer and not by him. My recommendation to the President was direct and firm. That staffer should be fired immediately,” Burns wrote.
“Racism must be confronted, not excused. Accountability matters. And leaders must always speak clearly when lines are crossed,” he added.
Trump has used his Truth Social account to promote AI-generated videos attacking his political foes. He shared another manipulated video clip last September amid a looming government shutdown depicting Jeffries wearing a cartoon sombrero and mustache as he stood silently by Schumer. Mariachi music played in the background.
In an exclusive interview this week, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas asked Trump about election conspiracy theories he has promoted on social media. Trump said he doesn’t believe all of them.
“Do you believe that stuff?” Llamas asked.
“No, no, no, no. … I sometimes will … retruth” those claims, Trump replied.
In his second term as president, Trump has issued executive orders targeting and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government that were expanded under Democratic presidencies, including Obama’s, and has ramped up deportations and restrictive immigration policies.
Trump also has a history of denigrating immigrant groups, lately including the Somali community in Minnesota. The president has come under fire previously for associating with white nationalists, including Nick Fuentes, and has embraced far-right influencers with a history of making racist and inflammatory remarks.
The video Trump reposted Thursday focused primarily on false claims about voting machine anomalies in 2020. The president has repeated the false claim that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden, and last week his FBI searched and seized 2020 voter records from an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, that county officials are suing to retrieve.
Reached for comment after the search, the FBI said it could not provide details about an ongoing investigation.
